Happy Sunday morning everyone!

This past week has been a bit of an adventure -- the first piece I wrote on the Jesse Singal - Substack meltdown went viral (THANK YOU to everyone who shared it and gave it a compliment, it means the world to me) so now we have a bunch of new faces here! Welcome new subbies!

For the sake of everyone new here let me explain the idea behind Sunday Morning Reads -- throughout the week I amass a collection of pieces in my Twitter bookmarks, things that I find interesting or fun or noteworthy so I decided I’d share some of those pieces with my subscribers. I also have started to include a bit about what has been going on in my life, giving updates on future content, and generally making sure all of you are in the loop as far as knowing what the hecking hell is going on here.

Now for those of you who have been here, I told you I would have two pieces out this week and I did it! As I mentioned above one of those pieces gained a *lot* of traction and I couldn’t be happier. I have to admit, it has been amusing to watch certain people leave Substack in a disgusted huff while having my most successful week on the platform to date. But, as Fleetwood Mac said, you can go your own way.

On the topic of Substack as a platform, I apologize in advance to everyone who is sick of hearing about it but I have one more piece I want to write. On the bright side, it isn’t really about this current controversy but one I’ve been thinking about for a while; what do platforms like Substack mean for mainstream media outlets in both the short term and the long term as far as being able to hire talented writers. That’ll likely be Wednesday’s post, so prepare yourselves.

Now, on to the reading

Robby Soave takes a look at the infamous “bad day” press conference and how the media decided to run with Aaron Rupar’s bad-faith interpretation of it instead of, y’know, watching the video

While it has certainly been pointed out by many a political commentator, myself included, here is Scott Lincicome pointing out that while Republicans were worried about Dr. Seuss getting canceled Democrats were making substantial policy gains via the $1.9T COVID relief bill.

Michael J. Totten writes about leaving Portland, but the piece is less about leaving and more about how much Portland has changed in the past 20 years

In a piece that I’m sure will remain controversial for years, Helen Lewis looks at the rise of identity hoaxers -- people who lie about their racial identity for years or even decades -- as a new form of Munchausen syndrome

Matthew McManus gives a tough but fair evaluation of Jordan Peterson’s latest book, in light of the personal struggles Peterson has gone through since his breakout book 12 Rules For Life

As always, I’m excited to see what fresh hell next week brings us. Until then, take care and get excited about our hot vaccine summer.

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Sunday Morning Reads 3/21/21

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